Quotes: Head Coach Chip Kelly

Q. What do you look for from your guys, tomorrow in practice, to make sure they are on the right track back?

CHIP KELLY: You see the energy they show up with. Today is an off day for them so there's a couple guys I think that will go in and get treatment and whatnot.

Tomorrow we come back starting with meetings; what's their mind set like, what's their energy lively like, what's it going to be like when they hit the practice field.

Q. Anybody with injuries not practicing?

CHIP KELLY: I don't know, haven't met with (head athletic trainer Chris Peduzzi) yet. I’ve got to check, but there didn’t seem like there was anything serious that I was concerned with.

Q. What about you? What's it been like for you to process?

CHIP KELLY: Ready to go. Going to go play the Giants. Put the game to bed last night. Watched film and graded it on the plane ride home, met as a staff today and went over the film, offensively, defensively and special teams and now we are fully on to the New York Giants.

Q. When you looked at it, there were a lot of things you couldn't tell yesterday without having watched the film. For instance, what happened on the punt block?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, punt block, might have been even like a three and a half man rush. We had a guy trying to escape and get down the field too quick trying to cover the punt and not taking care of the little things and it's a lot of times, it's the deal is in the details, the little teeny things that you've got to take care of, especially when you're playing such a good football team.

You can't make mistakes like that. It wasn't even a designed punt block. It was just a guy trying to escape too quick down the field to cover (Trindon) Holliday, I think maybe had that on his mind more than protection first, and it's a protection first play. And then you have to be an offensive player first on punt and then a defensive player when you cover.

Part of it is just when you watch tape, you get things you can't get back, the woulda, coulda, shoulda's, but I think what we need to make sure, we show that to our guys, we correct it and get on the field and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Q. Playing man to man, you talked about how that opened things up for Michael Vick and he took some of the yards and scrambling; would you prefer that, for him to take those yards, or would you prefer that guys win in more individual matchups?

CHIP KELLY: I prefer: How do we get yards out of the deal. We've got to do a better job at times separating.

Sometimes we are throwing the ball a little bit further down the field trying to take some shots and if they do do that, I thought Mike made some good decisions of when his feet can become a weapon for you. Because if you're going to play man, the one thing they don't have is the ability to cover the quarterback at the same time.

But what we need to get yards out of those situations and we have to do a better job I think in protecting them and I think we have to do a better job of getting open.

Q. Did you feel your offense was good enough yesterday?

CHIP KELLY: On Sunday?

Q. Yeah.

CHIP KELLY: No. I mean, we didn't win the game, did we?

Q. You've spoken a few times about settling for three when you need seven in the red zone - what's the issue when you get down there; is it a player thing?

CHIP KELLY: It's a lot of things. You look at specifically yesterday, penalties and drops, we are in the red zone, we drop the ball. We are in the red zone or potentially in the red zone once, get a penalty. In the red zone another time and get a penalty.

When you set yourself back and now you're playing first and 20s or second and 20s, that makes it a little bit difficult.

So when we get in the red zone we talk about no sacks, no turnovers, no penalties and no drops and those are the things that are hurting us, right now it's been the penalties and it's been the drops.

Q. On the two early drives that you settled for field goals, I think you had fourth and four in the red zone; how much did you consider going for it?

CHIP KELLY: Didn't consider it at all.

Q. What's the thought that there would be more aggressiveness on offense or gambling, given the fact what you're going up against with the Broncos offense, can you just explain the approach and why you decided to go the more conservative way?

CHIP KELLY: I don't think that's conservative. I think at that point in time when we made those decisions, we were trying to get points.

Q. What concerns you most about special teams?

CHIP KELLY: I think the inconsistency. At times it's been a real strength for us. The mistakes that were made on special teams, specifically in the kickoff return, the kickoff and the punt, are things that we work on on a daily basis.

So it's things it's not like we put in a new scheme or something special for the Broncos game that hey we are going to try and do that. And then you look at it, that scheme kind of backfired. It's base fundamental coverage and base fundamental protection and then coverage that we didn't get done on those two particular plays.

CHIP KELLY: I think Alex is a really good kicker. I think he's been very accurate throughout his entire career. It's interesting when you analyze his three misses and they are all from 40 to 49 yards. One was right and one was left and one was right.

When we look at everything, when someone does make a mistake, how do we correct it. Not that you want them, but if it was, all three of them were left, then you would say, hey, we are analyzing where his playing foot is, how is he doing, if he is swinging through the ball and kind of pulling it; or is he not blocking his hips out and pushing the ball.

But it was actually a left, right, left, kind of where we've been with it. We'll continue to work with it. He's been extremely accurate. I think he's 85 percent in his career and right now we are seven for 10 in field goals. And when you're playing in games like this against really good teams, that stuff gets magnified.

But I do have confidence in him and (special teams coordinator) Coach (Dave) Fipp has confidence in him and I see him in practice every single day but from a kicking standpoint I'm pretty confident in him.

Q. On Denver's third offensive drive, they started out with two tight ends – You had Brandon Boykin playing a quasi outside linebacker and it seemed that the Broncos were running in his direction every time, is that a match up that's favorable for you guys?

CHIP KELLY: Boykin playing an outside linebacker against two tight ends? No.

Q. Michael Vick said he's going to be watching closely some of the veteran guys on the team and making sure he keeps everybody together. Are you also talking about keeping heads up?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, we talk to everybody about that. I don't think that's uncommon, when we've lost a couple games now, we have to talk about what our attitude is like and how we approach this week getting ready to go play the Giants.

Q. There are a couple plays that the Broncos were able to make blitzed from the slot. Are your safeties not getting into their coverage spot in time in that situation?

CHIP KELLY: I guess I'd have to know the specific play you're talking about but there's a lot of things when you're playing someone you can show exactly what you're going to do. That's where you play that cat and mouse game. We had a pretty good disguise on in that play and didn't show them and didn't tip our hand. But if you don't tip your hand, then sometimes you are not close enough to your work.

So it's that Catch 22 from where you are is that yeah, we can put Boykin on the line of scrimmage and roll the safety right on top of him but now you've told him exactly what you're giving him.

When you're playing someone that is so good like Peyton (Manning) is, you're in that game of, how long do we hold our disguise and is our disguise a liability. The same thing happened to them a couple times. They blitzed the linebacker from depth and didn't give us any indication that it was going to be a blitz. But then we threw the shell crossing route and hit the guy before the linebacker gets to the quarterback.

Sometimes the unblocked guy doesn't get to the quarterback because the disguise is a liability. But the flipside is that if you show everybody what you're doing, then with someone as good as Peyton, he may check out of it and go the other way.

Q. No, I don't know, I'm just saying it looked like he was are those gaps

CHIP KELLY: It depends, again, I'm not being evasive but I don't know, if you told me the particular play and play 62 on this thing, I could tell you what our play call was and could tell you who was responsible for that gap.

But a lot of times you just can't look from the outside and say hey that was the linebacker's game when it could have been, we should have been slanting into that gap.

Q. Did you think the gaps were rather large in general?

CHIP KELLY: Again depends what we are playing. They both could have been responsible for the A gap and the C gap, and (Mychal Kendricks) should have been in the B gap. I don't know until I know exactly what particular play you're talking about.

But there are some times when we are running plays and it's a run play and whether we are not getting our defensive lineman into the B gap where he's supposed to be or we are not getting the linebacker yet. You're right in that there is a big gap, but I can't tell you on the specific play whether it was this guy's responsibility or that guy's responsibility.

Q. Is Kendricks one of your you were talking about him a lot in training camp, his physical ability, is he struggling in coverage and wrapping up in tackling?

CHIP KELLY: I think wrapping up and tackling, yeah, and we have talked to Mychal about that and (inside linebackers coach) Rick (Minter) has worked with them on that and that's some of the things I think Mychal thinks a little bit too much and doesn't let himself go play and just kind of pull the trigger and go.

But he does, obviously everybody is aware of his athletic ability as he continues to grow and figure out exactly what we are doing scheme wise and things like that. I think you'll continue to see him get better and better and better because he does have that athletic ability. But there are some times he is that little bit hesitant and he's just kind of, go.

Q. His coverage, is that consistent - Is he doing alright there?

CHIP KELLY: He's doing all right there, yeah.

Q. You mentioned last night after the game, Michael Vick is taking too many hits, especially the last two weeks, and you said it was something you would have to address; how do you address it?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I'm talking from a protection standpoint. I don't even think we had a run play where Mike took off and ran with the ball but there's times when you're calling seven man protections and you're varying your protections in terms of where you are, where you don't expect him to get to the top of his drop and have someone in his face.

So it's just, it's all there's not one thing, and there's not one answer that it's, this, and if we make this adjustment, then we are going to be good. It's all of a sudden, great and someone who has been playing fantastic for 52 plays - on the 53rd play makes a mistake up front and when you get beat in a one on one situation, and all of a sudden somebody you expected to get picked up has created some penetration into the backfield.

Q. What did you think of Lane Johnson specifically in pass protection yesterday?

CHIP KELLY: I think Lane has gotten better but again when you have a young guy like him, I think Lane is not unlike Mychal in terms of there's times where you've just got to go. Just trust what it was, what was the line call made by Jason Kelce, don't hesitate.

Sometimes when you're half a second late and when you're on the guy, all of a sudden he's got your back shoulder. Where I think Lane knows exactly what to do but at times, the game has to happen just a little bit quicker for him.

Q. You talked about moving from the wide nine to the three to the two gap 3 4, are you as far along as you would be there? And do you feel you have the proper personnel to run what you're running right now and is there sort of a sliding scale where you go back towards a 4 3 based on personnel?

CHIP KELLY: How many questions is that?

Q. I got four in there.

CHIP KELLY: Four in there. That's good by you. We never had a ‘where we're going to be’.

I think it's always, what the ability of our players are to do, and I think you're closer to a four down front at times but it depends what people are doing to you. If they are really trying to run the ball, I think playing the two gap, set the edge type of defense where people are trying to smash and do those different things, it depends who you're playing and what the scheme is. But most of the time when we are nickel and Brandon (Boykin) is in the game, we are mostly in a four down package.

So you're more towards a four down package but a lot of that is dependent on who you are playing and what they are trying to do and if they are trying to throw the ball on you, you are going to be in more four down against them.

Q. What are defenses doing against DeSean Jackson that's limiting his production?

CHIP KELLY: I think we have seen just a little bit more man, and I think that's overall with everybody. But I also think we've been productive moving the football. I still think we're stopping ourselves. We are not getting stopped by a scheme and we are not getting stopped by a look.

I think we've been in situations where we've driven the football and we've proven we can drive the football. But again, the penalties -- two weeks ago when we played the Chiefs, it was the turnover situation and the false starts and illegal procedures and those things that I that I handcuffed us as a football team. I think this past day was the two holding penalties and drops that hurt us as a football team.

Q. Did you notice a trend that Peyton Manning began to check into the run or had a play called originally as a run when Clifton Geathers and Bennie Logan were in the game?

CHIP KELLY: I think the one thing with Peyton is you can't tell what the trend is because you don't know what the first call was. You know when there's a lot of times with Peyton, knowing the system where it could have been a run to a run, and it could have been a run to a run to a run, and there's other times where the first play he called, he didn't check but he made it seem like he checked it three times. That's kind of the beauty in having a Peyton Manning.

But no one knows; it's easy to sit here and say, ‘Hey, he checked to a run.’ You have no idea what he checked to because no one is privy to what the first play call was.

Q. How do you feel in general about those two guys in that line, the second time line that you put in there?

CHIP KELLY: That wasn't the second-team line. Just depending on what we are in. Soap is in in base but he's not in nickel, you know what I mean, so that's kind of when Soap is in the game. I think all those guys, they were okay. They weren't dominant up front and we were not obviously taking control of everything at certain points in times but I can't look at him in general. I’d just say they were okay.

Q. Do you like the way those guys played in the preseason? Do you think now that it's for real, those guys, you are starting to see the gap between guys who can play well in the preseason and when it's turned for real that they don't match that production?

CHIP KELLY: No, I don't see that.

Q. How much is the ability of your secondary yesterday, with as many receivers that appeared to be wide open

CHIP KELLY: What was the first part of that question?

Q. The ability of your secondary. Are they good enough?

CHIP KELLY: I think it's a combination of all and I've always said that. It's pass rush and coverage ability. And it's not -- you just can't lay it on one.

I think you need to generate a pass rush so the quarterback has to get the ball out in a certain amount of time and then we have to be close enough to our work so what when he does get the ball out, we are there.

Q. Teams have been very successful against you with short passes and the Broncos were as well. What do you think you need to do to stop that?

CHIP KELLY: I think you're picking your poison. You can say, all right, now we crawl up on everybody and play press-man on everybody.

But the one thing we are not, except for the long pass right at the end of the first half, which shouldn't have been thrown on us because we should have been in a cover three with a post safety, but we are not getting the ball thrown over our head. I think that's one of the biggest things our defense has done a good job is eliminate X-plays. You're not giving up a 75 , 80 yarder that's thrown over your head.

I think it depends; if you're going to throw the ball down in front of us, we have to rally up, we have to tackle you and we have to make you drive the field a little bit about, and I think that's what we are trying to do now.

We want to be in our zones, deep to short and make sure we have 11 guys running to the football and hopefully we can get a little bit of pressure on the quarterback and not let him throw an accurate ball that's a catchable, runnable type play.

Q. Is it frustrating when you're giving up the short passes underneath?

CHIP KELLY: You have to make tackles, yeah. But you've got to defend something. And right now, I know we are real adamant about not giving up X-plays and not getting the ball thrown over our head.

Q. As bad as it appeared yesterday, is there anything positive that you can take out of that? How do you move forward from a game like that?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I think we did some good things. I think offensively we moved the ball and there's correctible mistakes there. I thought we competed on the defensive side of the ball, and I think we left them on the field a little bit too much in the third quarter there.

And I think in special teams, aside from the punt block and that kickoff return, we are getting a decent job and decent effort out of those guys.

So I think there are some positives and that's what you you look at the negatives and you put a plan in place to correct what we are doing wrong and then build upon the positives as we get ready to go play the Giants.

Q. What do you learn from a game like that?

CHIP KELLY: To not let it happen again.

Q. Are you looking at lineup changes or personnel changes after that game?

CHIP KELLY: No, it's unique. We have got 46 guys on our roster and I think almost all 46 played. So it's not like we are not getting guys in the game and guys are not playing and aren't giving us an opportunity right now.

It's not different than you don't have a whole, other guys, like let's put these guys in. We are rotating our defensive linemen in and getting those guys in the game. Jake Knott played a little bit of inside linebacker. Casey (Matthews) played some outside linebacker in a Connor Barwin situation.

Obviously we are a man down with safety with Pat (Chung) being out but (Earl) Wolff played a lot of snaps; Nate (Allen) played a lot of snaps. We rotated a little bit at receiver and we started to get some of our tight ends into the game.

I think you saw three running backs in the game. I don't there's not going to be, ‘Hey, this guy is starting this week’, but I think we need to get all 46 guys playing.

Q. What did you think of the way your safeties played?

CHIP KELLY: I think Nate's played better in the last two weeks and we've seen some improvement from them. I love Earl's energy in running around but he's still a young rookie just like a lot of our rookies and he made a few mistakes. Should have been in the middle of the field on that deep pass down the middle. But I love Earl's energy and he's going to fly around and he's going to give you everything he's got. But he's still learning on the job.

Q. You got Zach Ertz involved a little more, was that the plan going in or was that what they were showing you on the field?

CHIP KELLY: No, it was, we thought, based on what they did, that we could get a little more 12 in the game and see how they matched up and ran. If you're going to play man, who is matching up in man and when you're in 12 and trying to get those guys isolated a little bit so that was kind of the plan going in. I think Zach has continued to develop a little bit. We've seen more and more from him on a weekly basis here as he starts to continue to grasp what we are doing here.

Q. You didn't throw it to Ertz though. He’s not a great blocker, don't you have him out there to use him?

CHIP KELLY: No, I mean, I would disagree that he's not a great blocker. I think Zach's a versatile guy that you could put in the game in a lot of different situations. So when the ball was thrown to him, he did come up and catch it, though.

Q. But you spoke when drafting Ertz about his versatility, splitting wide, playing the slot. Is that a role you expect him?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I expect him to grow and as he's here, he's four games into his professional football career.

So to see him run around and line up all over the place like Jimmy Graham from the New Orleans Saints, I don't think anybody envisioned that as we put together an offense and start to figure out what he's good at, what he's not good at.

But to say, hey, you've gotten two snaps at tight end now, now let's put you out at split end and now let's take you, put you in the slot. That's a lot easier said than done. To get all the little nuances of how to do the little things when you're running a shallow crossing route, if all of the sudden the front side linebacker drops you, but the backside linebacker picks you up man to man, how you can stick and avoid and get across the field.

There's a lot of details in doing it. It's not as easy as saying, ‘Hey, we drafted this guy and he has got the ability.’ Yeah, he does. But I also think, we also have to get him settled. We have to make sure that we all as a group understand that everybody here, you have to walk before you can run. There's a lot of big plans that you can do with Zach and that we can do with this entire offense, but it's going to come in a process.

It's not going to come with all of a sudden tomorrow we are going to come up with 17 different ways where we can deploy Zach and put him in different situations because it's not fair to him to tell him, this is what you have to do in these situations. He's got to be able to go through them himself and through the experience of playing the game I think he's going to learn that.

Q. There's only so many snaps to go around on the offensive side of the ball and you talked about Bryce Brown getting more involved and he was more involved but Chris Polk got in and ran very strongly and had a touchdown. Is there any chance he could see a little more time?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I think Chris warranted some playing time from yesterday. I was really happy with him. I think we've been pleased with Chris in terms of what he's done for us so far from a special teams standpoint.

And then when he got his opportunity, I thought he ran really hard. I thought he made a really nice decision on a pass route where we threw to him on the sideline and ended up being a nine yard gain for us. That's the good thing about it is I think we have some competition amongst some of those positions where we can say, ‘Hey, we have got some guys here, we have got some versatility here and we can use those guys.’ But I think Chris is a guy on Saturday I mean, on Sunday that, caught our eye and you're going to have to look at and say, ‘Hey, Chris is in the game.’

Well, good, Chris is in the game; this is what Chris does well and this is what we need to do when he's in the game.

Q. Talk about playing more man, teams playing you more man. How much more does Mike Vick need to trust his receivers when teams are doing that against him and maybe they are not open, trusting that they are going to get open?

CHIP KELLY: Again, it depends on what play. There's maybe one play where, yeah, he should have let it rip but there's other plays where we have to do a better job of getting open and other plays where we have to do a better job of protecting him. It's a combination of the whole thing. There's not one answer where you can come back and just say, ‘Hey, Mike, trust your receivers.’ (He’ll say) ‘But the three technique is in my face.’ You know what I mean. There's a lot of different things.

I don't think we are far away offensively. I look at what we have done consistently in four games. I think we know as a group we can move the football but sometimes the enemy that we play isn't the other team, it's ourselves.